Efeterthrop’s Pyrus Patch, Toll Gate

In a world where teleportation magic doesn’t exist, the opportunity to travel a few days journey in moments is beyond value. With only a simple toll, you can be practically on the doorstep of Nizul-tibi before you know it.

The lands of Estalon have thrived in the wake of an ancient war; magic was scarce and hidden to nearly all who lived. The few who worked to tease out what little they could in their short lifetimes had eventually became powerful arch mages and the pillars of modern magical thought. Their pet projects litter the landscape even to this day, though few understand what they are or even where they came from. Fewer still, realize the danger of testing ancient magic that has begun to deteriorate with time.

The Pyrus Patch, commonly called for its difficulty to place on a map properly, has recently come under the jurisdiction of the City of Efeterthrop. Having spent nearly ten years studying the strange phenomena causing countless trade caravans to become disoriented and lost between their city and that of Nizul-tibi, they have tamed its dangers and made it a boon. So dangerous the area once was that it had gained a haunted stereotype; a flat patch of desert marked of as no man’s land. The main danger being its invisible nature no modern magic or scrying techniques work to discern the phenomena’s properties. Efeterthrop sent countless groups of scholars and volunteers to test the edges of the phenomena, discovering it was of a spherical shape dropping its victims a rather exact 100miles on the opposite side of the phenomena. Many of the volunteers were able to return safely, but nearly 20% were lost never to be heard from again. Areas where they were lost were marked and soon the entire outer edge was tested. A main gate, optimal for travel through the phenomena, was erected on a route between Efeterthrop and Nizul-tibi. The toll placed there was incidental, and while drawing in some decent coin; it is merely an operational cost of guarding their new trade route. By paying, one had the ability to cut nearly seven days off the journey through the desert, leaving only a single day in the desert and an additional day in a more temperate climate.

Loss of Volunteers:

Some were lost during the testing phase. Many speculate they somehow went inside, if that’s even possible. Others believed they disintegrated, and a few thought they went to the astral plane. What ever happened, it remains clear that skirting the toll is a dangerous prospect. Few will try to stop you for fear of hitting the invisible threshold. Since the toll roads were built, many have paid adventurers to try to “get inside” and return with any information, none have returned to this date.

History:

The Pyrus Patches are ancient remnants of old magic in the region, inside each lies one of the few intact mage towers of study, now abandoned. The cataclysmic event of the last war damaged the original spell weakening the ability to hide 100 miles of land in 100 ft., harmlessly dropping unwanted visitors away from their studies. So damaged is the spell that huge invisible cracks and fissures line the base of the sphere, granting access to the center. However, remnants of experiments run wild have made leaving a more difficult task than entering, especially when the magic keeping things inside the Patch are still intact or merely broken in different places.

Plot Hooks:

The PCs are charged with exploring the Pyrus patch, and bringing back its secrets.

An explosion while traveling through the patch has causes a new fissure to open up in the toll area, as the PCs and hundreds of civilians spill into the insides. They see before them luch forests and hear strange creatures. How do you get out; the fissures only work one way?

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Let's see if I get this straight, it's basicly a big invisible pocket dimension in the desert that is smaller on the inside, which would allow for faster travel? And if you exit this pocket dimension in the wrong place you are ejected somewhere either just outside this bubble/sphere or somewhere far away from it?

Let me see if I have this right. You enter at one point of the sphere, and you exit at the opposite point by following the diameter.

What would happen if you entered from the top? Say you skydived and hit the top- would you suddenly find yourself encapsulated in rock? And would, if the earth level is higher at one side of the circle then the other, find yourself with your feet stuck in dirt at the other end?

I liked the bit with the volunteers, and how they might have died off- were they paid, or otherwise induced, to volunteer, or were they forced to do it, and then someone doctored the history books? It may just be me, but I wouldn't feel you'd get many volunteers for such a dangerous task without a reward.

I love it! Some real ideas!
Note: Yep teleported to the exact opposite of the sphere e.g. the diameter.
1. So yeah never thought about the skydive aspect. Because the original spell was much smaller, they would just smack the top and slide down until they hit about 50ft up from the equator, imagine the actual teleport spell has been stretched around the force field like a girdle.
2. Yeah they probably had issues with the direct teleport with people ending up buried or falling at the other side that's why the toll was set in place to ensure that there was level ground on both sides, hence "safe travel," at least for that part.

What happened to the volunteers? Did they all telesplat? Maybes are nice, but concrete details provide more assistance to GMs. We can always change it if we want to, but its nice to have a starting point.

As for detecting the edge, I would expect livestock (cheap ones, like goats) would be quite suitable. Does the teleport work on unaccompanied physical objects? If so, thrown stones could be used to map the edge.

To clarify most volunteers were criminals or worse, looking to work off their debt rather than be killed. Many who didn't return could have went tele-splat teleporting into the ground or falling in such a way as to not be able to return safely, while still on the outside they ware basically stranded in the desert if there was no way to reach the now to high band around the force field.

Detecting the edge is tricky while, inanimate objects and people alike are affected, but those are affected as a whole. So, if one were to tie a rope to someone, in an attempt to pull them back; once they were over half way in them and the entirety of the rope are supposed to be transported to the other side of the sphere.

I'm not sure if i missed something, but wouldn't throwing a ball back and forth through it would be a less costly way of finding the edge than human lives? Also, would splashing paint around the ground along the edge or burning back grass around it reveal the exact location of the edge, since the paint/fire would hit the rim and travel through to the other side, leaving a perfect line where it begins?

an interesting sub, nevertheless! I like the idea that someone decided to commercialise the rift/anomaly.

Freetext

a child is born and he is discovered to be a god and they need him to complete a ritual to end all evil, if the one true evil gets hold of him then he will use his life source to end the world, he is ocumpained by three warriors to help him on his way,